The pair, along with 28 classmates and four teachers, were headed to a summer church camp held by the West Valley Christian School near Los Angeles. The camp is aimed at helping foreign students improve their English skills.

Study tours are increasingly popular for Chinese families that can afford them. Another group of students and teachers from Taiyuan in Shanxi province were also on the flight.

The tours usually last around two to three weeks and cost about $5,000, with the East and West Coasts of the United States the most popular destinations.

West Valley Christian School said on its website that the girls and their group had been due to arrive Tuesday and stay for three weeks.

Instead, some members of the group are still hospitalized in San Francisco, waiting for their families, said Derek Swales, administrator for the school. Once they recover, they will be returning to China for the summer instead of coming to camp, he said.

Students from the group were carrying bags and blankets labeled "Salvation Army" when they arrived at a San Francisco hotel on Monday. They met with China's counsel general, standing solemnly in a circle as he spoke. An adult with them said they were having a difficult time. "They spent the morning crying," the adult said.

The girls would have studied language, arts and culture during their stay at the camp.

Ye was also looking forward to visiting college campuses, Chinese media said.

A picture in Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper showed two grinning, bespectacled girls wearing red-and-yellow tracksuits and making a heart shape with their arms.

"She was attentive and responsible and communicated with other students when there were problems," the teacher said. "That's why she was elected class leader three years in a row."

Her classmate, Lu Hao, told the newspaper Wang was always smiling.

"She was tall and skinny and very nice to others," Lu said.

A keen painter and calligrapher, Wang produced artworkthat was said to hang on the wall of her father's office.

Ye's mother told the paper her daughter had won the school's annual speech contest. Her music teacher said she possessed a special skill at singing and playing the piano.

Word of the girls' deaths devastated other parents in the community, many of whom had sent their own children on the same summer trip.

For years, the elite school has been sending students to the United States for the summer, so when the news came, father Mao Xiao Qiang said he thought it was a joke.

"The second feeling was surprise, and then I was terrified. I immediately called my boy, and luckily, I found he was OK," he said. "As a father, I feel very sad. I saw those girls when we were saying goodbye."

Grieving parents arrive in U.S.

Ye's and Wang's parents left for San Francisco on Monday bring the bodies of their beloved girls home, the school's principal said.

During a layover in Seoul, Asiana Airlines President and CEO Yoon Young-doo met the parents at the airport and apologized.

The families later arrived in San Francisco on Monday night, China Daily reported.

Nearly three hours after the crash, David Eun walked through customs at San Francisco International Airport. By then, the adrenaline rush was subsiding enough that he could begin processing the enormity of it all.